Stop sleeping and start thinking - Dr. Aidoo tells Ghana deputy ministers

 

Ambassador-designate, Dr. Tony Aidoo, wants deputy ministers to do much more than taking assignments from their bosses and exhibit a higher view of their work.

Questioning the attitude of some ministers of state, Dr. Tony Aidoo argued that “the functions of a deputy minister …is not to be attending conferences and openings and making political speeches and so on".

"You are a think tank; a ministerial appointment is a thinking job,” he said on the Super Morning Show Monday.

Ghana has 34 deputy ministers serving under President John Mahama's administration.

There is a public perception that Deputy ministers exist to perform functions delegated to them by the substantive ministers. A perception reinforced by the fact that the 1992 Constitution does not spell out the precise role of deputies.

That notwithstanding, the former Director of Policy Evaluation and Monitoring at the presidency sees no basis for a laid back approach to work.

In his view, a deputy minister "shouldn’t be sleeping at 8 o’clock simply because everybody is sleeping at 8 o’clock. Part of your responsibility is to sit down; sometimes go to bed at 12 o’clock thinking because you are supposed to support the president with ideas.’